Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

THE 2016 GOVERNMENT CHEMIST REVIEW

Joseph Johnson: The twentieth Annual Review of the Government Chemist has been received. The Review will be placed in the Libraries of the House and those of the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland. The Review will also be laid before the Scottish Parliament.The Government Chemist is the Referee Analyst named in Acts of Parliament. The Government Chemist’s team carry out analysis in high-profile or legally disputed cases. A diverse range of referee analysis work was carried out during 2016, including measurement disputes relating to mycotoxins, authenticity, protein allergens and sulphites.


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Ministry of Defence

Gifting of Equipment to Libya

Sir Michael Fallon: I have today laid before the House a Departmental Minute describing a package of Counter Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) equipment that the UK intends to gift to the Government of National Accord of Libya. The value of the package is £2,977,374.91, plus around £60,000 for packaging and shipping. The provision of this equipment is to support a C-IED training programme for Libyan military and police units. The training programme is being funded by the Governments of Germany and the United States, and will be delivered by a contractor. In December 2016 the forces of the GNA concluded a hard-fought battle to liberate the city of Sirte from Daesh. However, the city is now littered with unexploded ordnance and IEDs deliberately planted by the retreated terrorists. Citizens that have returned to the city now face a severe threat from such devices, which is preventing a normal pattern of life from returning. Through this multinational effort to equip and train Libyan units, we will develop a sustainable solution to tackling the IED threat that is destroying the lives of innocent Libyans. The Treasury has approved the proposal in principle. If, during the period of fourteen parliamentary sitting days beginning on the date on which this minute was laid, a Member signifies an objection by giving notice of a Parliamentary Question or a Motion relating to the minute, or by otherwise raising the matter in the House, final approval of the gift will be withheld pending an examination of the objection.

HM Treasury

Public services

Elizabeth Truss: Our public sector workers are among the most extraordinarily talented and hardworking people in our society. They, like everyone else, deserve to have fulfilling jobs that are fairly rewarded.We take a balanced approach to public spending, dealing with our debts to keep our economy strong, while also making sure we invest in our public services.The Government will continue to ensure that the overall package for public sector workers is fair to them and ensures that we can deliver world class public services, while also being affordable within the public finances and fair to taxpayers as a whole. The last Spending Review budgeted for one per cent average basic pay awards, in addition to progression pay for specific workforces, and there will still be a need for pay discipline over the coming years, to ensure the affordability of the public services and the sustainability of public sector employment. However, the Government recognises that in some parts of the public sector, particularly in areas of skill shortage, more flexibility may be required to deliver world class public services including in return for improvements to public sector productivity. The detail of 2018/19 pay remits for specific Pay Review Bodies will be discussed and agreed as part of the Budget process and set out in due course. Police and prison officer pay awards The following sets out the Government’s response to the recommendations in the third annual report of the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) and the sixteenth report of the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) which were published today. My Right Honourable Friend the Home Secretary (Amber Rudd) has decided to award officers in the PRRB remit group a pay award worth a total of two per cent to each officer in 2017/18, consisting of a one per cent consolidated pay increase in addition to a one-off one per cent non-consolidated payment to officers in that remit group. This award will be funded within existing budgets. The police pay award will be implemented with effect from 1 September 2017 as follows: A one per cent increase to base pay for all ranks.An additional one-off non-consolidated payment to officers at federated and superintending ranks.A one per cent increase to the London Weighting payment.A one per cent increase to the Dog Handlers’ Allowance. The Home Secretary’s full decision on all recommendations will be published alongside the PRRB report, on their website. These awards will be funded within existing budgets. In addition, the Supplement to the 2017 Report of the Senior Salaries Review Body making recommendations on the pay of chief police officers has also been published today. The Home Secretary has accepted these recommendations. My Right Honourable Friend the Justice Secretary (David Lidington) has accepted the PSPRB recommendations, giving all prison staff a pay increase. This pay award will help recruit and retain staff with the right experience and expertise to keep our prisons safe and secure. This is in line with the recommendation of the PSPRB. This award will be funded within existing budgets. The prison officer pay award is as follows and will be implemented in October’s pay and backdated to 1 April 2017: All Prison officers and operational support grades in bands 2-5 will receive a consolidated increase of at least £400, including those on their pay band maximum.All uniformed staff on ‘Fair & Sustainable’ terms in Bands 2-5 below the maximum will also progress by one pay point.Managers in bands 7-11 on ‘Fair & Sustainable’ terms will receive pay progression above 1% depending on their performance rating and place in their pay band.Managers on closed grades will get at least 1%, and those below their pay scale maximum will get more. I thank all three Chairs and members of the independent Pay Review Bodies for their hard work in producing these recommendations. Copies of the reports are available in the Vote Office and will be published online.   


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Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Ratification of the 1954 Hague Convention and Protocols

John Glen: The United Kingdom has formally ratified the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and acceded to its two Protocols of 1954 and 1999.Our instruments of ratification and accession were formally deposited with UNESCO this morning. Subject to confirmation by UNESCO, the Convention and Protocols will come into force for the United Kingdom on 12th December 2017.The Convention and Protocols are intended to protect cultural property from damage, destruction, looting and unlawful removal during armed conflict. The Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act 2017 makes the necessary provision in our domestic law to ensure that we can meet our obligations under the Convention and Protocols.We intend to bring the provisions of the Act into force on the same date that the Convention and Protocols come into force.Before the Convention, Protocols and Act come into force, we plan to announce and publish a number of implementation measures.We will announce and publish a list of categories of cultural property in the United Kingdom which we believe meets the definition of cultural property set out in Article 1 of the Convention and is therefore protected by the Convention and Protocols. This will be a UK-wide list, agreed with the devolved administrations. It will not be a definitive or exhaustive list, but it will act as a guide to the cultural property in the United Kingdom which we consider to be protected by the Convention and Protocols.We will also make an announcement about safeguarding measures for cultural property in England which is protected by the Convention and Protocols. The devolved administrations are responsible for safeguarding cultural property in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.The Convention and Act regulate the use of the cultural emblem (also known as the “blue shield”) that signifies cultural property protected by the Convention and Protocols and certain personnel engaged in the protection of cultural property. In accordance with the Act, we will publish some permissions to use the cultural emblem in England, which will come into effect on the day on which the Convention, Protocols and Act come into force. There will be a general permission for education and training purposes and permissions for specific organisations which need to make use of the emblem.We will make an announcement about our approach to granting permissions to display the cultural emblem in connection with immovable cultural property in England which is protected by the Convention and Protocols.Under the Act, the devolved administrations are responsible for granting permissions to use and display the cultural emblem in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.We will also publish guidance on the new offence of dealing in unlawfully exported cultural property, which is created by section 17 of the Act, to help people comply with the Act.

Department for Communities and Local Government

ROTHERHAM METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

Sajid Javid: Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has made steady and significant progress in its improvement journey since February 2015 when the Secretary of State for Education and I appointed a team of Commissioners to undertake all executive and some non-executive functions in the Council. This progress has led to the majority of functions being returned to the Council over the last 18 months.On 18 July 2017, I announced my intention, after careful consideration of the recommendation from the Commissioner team, to return a further five service areas to the Council – performance management, waste collection, human resources, asset management and community safety. On the same day, representations were invited from the Authority regarding this intention. I have considered the representations, including from the Chief Executive. I am satisfied that the Council is now able to exercise functions relating to these service areas in compliance with the best value duty as set out in the Local Government Act 1999, and that the people of Rotherham can have confidence that this will be the case.Today, I exercised my powers under section 15 of the Local Government Act 1999 to return five functions to the Council so that Councillors became responsible for decision making in these areas. To do so, the Education Secretary and I also issued further Directions updating the previous Directions issued on 21 March 2017. Handing back these powers increases democratic control and is a significant milestone for the Council on its improvement journey.With effect from 12 September, the Commissioners provide oversight on these five service areas as well as the set of functions returned last year and ensure that they are exercised in accordance with the statutory best value duty. Commissioners also continue to retain powers in children’s services (including all services relating to child sexual exploitation), the appointment and dismissal of statutory officers and payment of special allowances.   


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Department for Exiting the European Union

Foreign policy, defence and development: a future partnership paper

Mr David Davis: Today we are publishing the latest in the series of papers on the Government’s approach to the deep and special partnership the UK seeks with the EU. This paper sets out the Government’s vision for future UK-EU cooperation on foreign policy, defence and security, and development.Copies of this paper, and any further position and future partnership papers, will be deposited in the libraries of both Houses.


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